Hyatt Regency Manila Club Lounge entrance
The Regency Club lounge at Hyatt Regency Manila. Photo: Wilson McTaggart.

Airport lounges can make your wait for your flight a lot more pleasant, with free food, drinks and a quiet ambience. Some hotels also offer a similar sanctuary in the form of club lounges, which you can access with the right type of room or membership. These offer lots of useful services and can even save you money.

Club lounges are a space for guests to meet, dine and work, especially if you don’t want to stay in your room. Many lounges also offer happy hour drinks and canapés – sometimes even a full hot dinner buffet – during the evening. You may also have access to other benefits such as complimentary laundry services and meeting rooms.

Like airport lounges, hotels don’t include club lounge access for every guest. You need to either book a room with club lounge access or have access included with your hotel elite status.

How to access hotel club lounges

Many hotels within the major chains – such as Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott and Hyatt – offer a club lounge. To access the lounge, you can simply pay for a room including access. These include standard rooms marketed as coming with lounge access (often on higher floors), as well as most suites. Some hotels also offer paid lounge access.

Otherwise, the most common method to get access to a hotel lounge is via status:

Hotel chainStatus needed for lounge access
AccorPlatinum and above
HiltonDiamond only
IHGAs a Milestone Reward (40/70 nights)
MarriottPlatinum Elite and above
HyattGlobalist only

By using milestone rewards, IHG effectively has two tiers of status, as lounge access is only for those who actually stay the nights. Similarly, Hyatt offers Club Access awards as milestone rewards, which you can apply to a single stay of up to seven nights to get lounge access.

Club lounge at the Intercontinental Tashkent
Intercontinental Tashkent Club lounge. Photo: Matt Graham.

You can get one year of Hilton Diamond status via Virgin Australia Platinum, which includes lounge access. This means you can access hotel lounges at Hilton properties before ever staying a single night!

If you have a status tier with Hilton or Hyatt that gets you a room upgrade, you might also receive lounge access with an upgrade to a lounge-tier room. This isn’t the case with Marriott, IHG or Accor though.

It’s important to note that not every hotel has a club lounge. One way to know if your hotel has a club lounge is by looking for rates providing club lounge access. For Accor hotels, you can check out this AFF thread on hotels equipped with an executive lounge.

What do you get in a hotel lounge?

All hotel lounges provide a more private space within the hotel itself, beyond your hotel room and common areas. At the very least, you’ll find seating areas and a food and drink selection.

Hyatt Regency Manila salad buffet
Hyatt Regency Manila salad buffet. Photo: Wilson McTaggart.

Hotel club lounges are a perfect place to work or have business meetings. You’ll often find lounges equipped with computers, printing facilities and even meeting rooms, which you can book.

Some lounges also have TVs, to catch up on the news or a sports game while relaxing. As most lounges are on the top floor of hotel buildings, they can have quite spectacular views, and make a perfect location for some pre-dinner drinks!

Are all hotel lounges the same?

Like airline lounges, the quality of club lounges varies significantly between individual hotels.

Lounges in Asia and Australia often outshine their counterparts in North America and Europe, offering superior amenities and services. Often in the United States, you’ll only find a small-ish room with a cold buffet and soft drinks.

In many hotel lounges in Asia, you can expect a large space with a relatively comprehensive food offering, sometimes enough for a proper meal!

Club lounge dinner at the Hyatt Regency Manila
Dinner dishes at the Hyatt Regency Manila. Photo: Wilson McTaggart

Some lounges provide exclusive happy hours and evening canapés (including cocktails), while others might have a more extensive hot buffet throughout the day.

The brand of the hotel also plays a crucial role; for instance, lounges at an Intercontinental hotel may offer a more luxurious experience compared to those at Crowne Plaza. If you have status, a hotel with a better lounge offering becomes much more enticing.

Club lounge seating at the Crowne Plaza London Heathrow T4
Club lounge at the Crowne Plaza London Heathrow T4. Photo: Matt Graham.

Access to a club lounge also provides complimentary breakfast, either in the lounge (where offered) or in the hotel’s main restaurant. A restaurant breakfast usually boasts a wider variety of options. However, they can also be more crowded, lacking the exclusive atmosphere of a lounge.

Wilson's love of travel started from a young age, but his love for points developed after figuring out ways to travel on a gap year for less - leading naturally towards Australian Frequent Flyer! Wilson's hobbies include skiing, cricket and planning trips, both with and without points.

Wilson posts on the AFF forum as @WilsonM.
________________________

Related Articles

Community Comments

Loading new replies...

When looking at the price of rooms with/out lounge access, I've not found the benefits to outweigh the costs of a buffet breakfast and a couple of drinks at the bar, especially as a solo traveller

Am I wrong? Is it really worth it?

Reply 3 Likes

I've recently been thinking about lounges. In some ways, I feel as a traveller they're actually a bad thing. Let me explain.

If I'm travelling solo for work, I land up just going for an evening drink and eat some rubbish just because it's there and free. From a health perseptive, it makes me lazy and I don't land up having a decent meal and drink just because.

When travelling with MrsDaver6 we land up in the lounge for evening drinks...again, just because it's there. If there was no lounge we'd land up exploring and doing something different.

I know just because it's there and available doesn't mean I have to use it. I realise that's my own craziness and to an extent laziness.

Reply 4 Likes

click to expand...

I've only just found out about club lounges myself as I took a brief vacation to Singapore/Malaysia. I enjoyed the extra level of service provided, the lounges feel exclusive and beautifully located and decorated. Admittedly, I didn't get a huge amount of value out of it, except at Pan Pacific Singapore where laundry/dry cleaning was free for club guests. I was mostly out and about.

The food ranged from absolutely outstanding to generic finger food/canape. Evening coughtails were always very enjoyable.

I guess all up, I will stretch for the club level as I enjoyed the luxury and precious time away from the unwashed masses. However, if you are out and about particularly in a country known for its street foods, I wouldnt bother (unless it was alcohol included all day) unless you are on a fly and flop holiday, you will appreciate the coffee, fresh juices and generally ambiance of the club lounges.

Reply Like

click to expand...

Asia is a much better proposition than Europe and the US
Will only use them if can take advantage of both evening and breakfast offerings.

Reply Like

I've recently been thinking about lounges. In some ways, I feel as a traveller they're actually a bad thing. Let me explain.

If I'm travelling solo for work, I land up just going for an evening drink and eat some rubbish just because it's there and free. From a health perseptive, it makes me lazy and I don't land up having a decent meal and drink just because.

When travelling with MrsDaver6 we land up in the lounge for evening drinks...again, just because it's there. If there was no lounge we'd land up exploring and doing something different.

I know just because it's there and available doesn't mean I have to use it. I realise that's my own craziness and to an extent laziness.

A couple of recent trips made me realise that the lounge varies between hotels and even the same brand. I stayed at the Hilton Bankside London and the EL was OK and the staff were friendly but obsequious. The Hilton Carlton Glasgow had one of the worst EL I've ever been in. I'll lose my Hilton Diamond next year and really I won't miss it (I think)

Reply 1 Like

click to expand...

A couple of recent trips made me realise that the lounge varies between hotels and even the same brand. I stayed at the Hilton Bankside London and the EL was OK and the staff were friendly but obsequious. The Hilton Carlton Glasgow had one of the worst EL I've ever been in. I'll lose my Hilton Diamond next year and really I won't miss it (I think)

I think what hurts more losing top tier is the difference in room upgrades between gold and diamond with HH or gold and platinum with ALL is quite a chasm.

Reply 1 Like